Phone problems, car trouble, and a banana split.

  Today was very interesting. Alex and I planned to spend the afternoon in town browsing through antique stores and thrift shops. We got a bit of a late start and it was nearly 2 o'clock by the time we left. As we were leaving the mail was delivered, so we stopped to check our little mailbox. We had received only one thing: the cell phone bill. When Alex read it he saw that we had been charged an extra $100! Looking through the twenty pages they sent us we realized that I had been charged for every outgoing text to my dear friend Christa, who lives in Canada. I have been texting her pretty much daily for almost a year with no problem and suddenly the texts were being considered international messages and I was being charged 20 cents per outgoing text?? It didn't make sense to us so Alex called the customer service number. We discovered that they had changed their service and that unlimited texting no longer covers international text messages. "If you change your plan now we can take off what has already been charged onto your next bill. It will only be another $10 a month!" When we asked them about what was already charged they told us that Alex had been sent a text that they were changing things and therefore they could not do anything about the extra charges on the bill he just received. Huh. It seems I am starting to agree with the Sprint guy at the mall, "You know what T-mobile stands for? Terrible mobile!" We plan on switching providers as soon as we can do so without having to pay a fee to end our plan with T-mobile.


 So, to whom it may concern at T-mobile: You know those little alerts I get "This will cost you an extra fee, do you wish to continue?"  like when I try to get on the internet? That kind of alert would have been nice when you started charging money for international texts. Just a tip ;)

So, once we discovered that we would have to pay the extra charges on our phone bill -and that I should now use blackberry messenger to talk to Christa- Alex and I left for town. Almost as soon as we got off of our street his car's check engine light came on! After talking to Grandma and Mom and being told that it wasn't something we could just ignore, Alex called his mechanic. He found out that he would have to wait til Monday to be able to get it in for an appointment. So, he had another short chat with Mom and found out there was a place in town that could do an engine reading for free. After stopping by two different places and being told it was just an emission problem, Alex tightened the fuel tank cover and the light hasn't come on since! Praise the Lord it was just something small!


 Finally, around 4, we made it to the first antique shop. It was huge!! We barely even started looking around the place. There were all sorts of crazy things. Knives, jewelry, old egg beaters, desks, chairs, buttons, china, odd statues, vintage Mickey Mouse figurines, old spectacles, ladies gloves, hat pins, lamps, records...We almost got locked in because we were still looking around at closing time. All the shops downtown seem to close at the same time, so we didn't make it to more than that one. Here's just a fraction of the store:

 We had been walking around the antique shop for about a half an hour when we decided to go to the old pharmacy in town and get phosphate sodas. (I discovered that phosphates are not the same as Italian sodas...though I am still unsure of the difference) The pharmacy was really busy! They have an old fashioned soda fountain set up in the middle. A long wooden counter with spinning bar stools the whole way around it and the drinks and ice cream, and the people who make and serve them, in the middle. All the seats were filled though, so while waiting for some to open up Alex and I wandered around the store.

He does like bacon a lot..this was a bacon cookbook!

We found a shark hat..it was difficult to see out of!

  Once there were seats open Alex and I ordered our 25 cent sodas. I got banana pineapple, and Alex got cherry lime. His was better, hehe. We then decided to share a banana split too, it had been so long since either of us had had one. It started out picture perfect, but I forgot to take one until we had already started eating.

 Anyway, today ended up being rather nice, despite how it started. We came home and watched a movie, I cut Alex's hair (my first time ever cutting someone's hair!! Maybe I'll post pictures later) and just had a nice relaxing evening. Alex and I have very much enjoyed all our time together this week that he has had off from school. Tomorrow we may go help butcher some elk!